A wild opening lap in Sunday’s GT/GTS Round 13 of the 2013 Pirelli World Challenge at Sonoma Raceway had multiple repercussions upon the championship in both classes.

GT points leader Johnny O’Connell stalled off the start, but was able to get his No. 3 Cadillac Racing CTS-V.R going – only to collide with GTS points leader Jack Baldwin and seven-time PWC champion Peter Cunningham in Turn 5.

O’Connell finished 12th, while teammate Andy Pilgrim led all 27 laps around Sonoma to win the race in GT ahead of Duncan Ende (No. 24 GMG Racing Audi R8 LMS) and James Sofronas (No. 14 GMG Racing Audi R8 LMS). By virtue of his podium finish, Sofronas took over the GT championship lead by 21 points, 1360-1339.

There was a bit of controversy involving second place in GT. Mike Skeen (No. 2 CRP Chevrolet Corvette) took the checkered flag in that position but PWC officials stopped scoring him at Lap 18, as Skeen’s team had ignored requests to serve a drive-through penalty for avoidable contact on the first lap; Skeen was eventually relegated to 11th.

Meanwhile, Baldwin’s opening-lap run-in – which rendered him unable to continue – allowed his rivals to tighten up the GTS championship.

Aschenbach’s podium allowed him to close within 46 points of Baldwin, 1297-1251, with Mark Wilkins 47 points behind after finishing sixth on Sunday.

TC/TCB

Saturday saw the Touring Car and Touring Car B-Spec classes stage Rounds 11 and 12, and the points leaders in both of those classes – Ryan Winchester in TC and Ernie Francis, Jr. in TCB – bolstered their title bids with weekend sweeps in their categories.

Round 11 saw Winchester take the TC checkered flag by a safe margin, but the final lap in TCB was a thriller between Francis and pole sitter Robbie Davis.

Francis, running second, was able to get a run on Davis going into the Turn 9 chicane. Davis tried to stop Francis from making the inside move come off, but was unable to do so and after a brief run into the dirt for both of them, Francis emerged with the lead and held on to it in the final few corners.

In Round 12, Francis had an easier run to his second TCB win of the weekend, ahead of Tyler Palmer and Joel Lipperini. As for TC, Winchester turned back a charge from teammate Brett Sandberg and led wire-to-wire.

Both Winchester and Francis extended their championship leads, with the former now holding a 297-point edge over Sandberg (1452-1155) in TC, and the latter now up 81 points on Davis (1322-1241) in TCB.

NBCSN will air the Pirelli World Challenge races from Sonoma on Sunday, Sept. 8 at 3:30 p.m. ET.

The second season of “Dinner with Racers,” presented by Continental Tire, drops its first batch of episodes today.

The 28-episode season follows the first 28 episodes released last year. This year, podcast hosts and sports car veterans Sean Heckman and Ryan Eversley saddled up in a Honda Odyssey minivan for the cross-country tour, while riding on Continental Tires.

There’s some great guests and details. Here’s the full breakdown, plus a video, below:

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One year after the successful debut of the motorsport podcast series “Dinner with Racers,” the antics of Ryan Eversley and Sean Heckman have returned for the binge release of “Season Two,” launching today. Following their 2015 debut that featured a month-long road trip recording 26 conversations “over dinner” with some of the most interesting characters in motorsports, the duo will launch another 28 recordings for their 2016 adventure. The second season will be released in two waves, with “Release One” launching the first 14 recordings immediately, and “Release Two” featuring an additional 14 recordings slated to release on December 16. All episodes can be found at www.dinnerwithracers.com or via iTunes.

Traveling for 40 days across 29 states, and covering 12,000 miles in 2016, the trip was made possible in part by the Honda Odyssey that was lent to the team by American Honda Motor Co., Inc, and most importantly thanks to a continuing title partnership with Continental Tire, who not only provided Cross Contact LX20 tires for the trip but covered the team’s expenses, as well as every meal.

Continuing the same theme from the debut season, #DWR2 follows a nearly identical format. A factory racing driver for Acura in the World Challenge series, Ryan Eversley makes up half of the hosting lineup, with motorsport marketing / creative content veteran Sean Heckman completing the duo. Using their unique blend of humor, insight, experience, as well as genuine love of the sport, Eversley and Heckman pick up right where they left off in Season One, exposing some of the most unique and entertaining stories from their variety of guests.

Meeting up with 28 different characters “over dinner,” listeners will exposed to a variety of personalities, everything from NASCAR and IndyCar star drivers, to some of the most respected engineers and mechanics, journalists, and broadcasters in the business. Stories cover everything from what it was like to be the first woman to qualify for the Indianapolis 500 and then Daytona 500, to giving up a contract worth over $2mil just to be a “good guy,” to turning a satiric twitter account in to a full-time job, as well as enjoying life after nearly three decades in prison. Topics include everything from a transgender pig, to being given dead cat whiskers as a good luck charm, to having guns pulled in the middle of a race shop, and even buying a race track in the hopes of laundering money through it.

For Ryan Eversley, a chance to continue the series was a welcome one.

“I know it’s a cliché, but It truly is such an honor and a privilege to be able to do this,” stated Eversley. “Both Sean and I were truly blown away by the fan support from Season One, it’s honestly something we weren’t expecting. It really meant a lot to get so many nice comments, and that kept us very motivated for Season Two. I think our genuine love of the sport translates when people listen, because we really enjoy hearing the real back stories in what makes everyone so unique. This season did not disappoint us at all. This show lives and dies by its guests, and we couldn’t have been luckier to have such a great group who were not only engaging and interesting, but also incredibly gracious with their time. It’s an absolute blast doing this, and we really appreciate Continental for continuing their support, as well as Honda for giving us an incredibly comfortable car for such a long trip.”

For Sean Heckman, a similar sentiment is shared.

“What he said,” stated Heckman.

Additionally, the series will continue to support less exposed musical acts, with each episode promoting a variety of musicians and bands at the close of every episode.

Ahead of the event in Las Vegas, each of the 10 of the sim racers that have qualified have been paired up with a Formula E team.

“I’d like to officially welcome the sim racers who qualified through the Road to Vegas Challenge to participate in the inaugural Visa Vegas eRace,” Formula E CEO Alejandro Agag said.

“I’ve been following the progress of the sim racers throughout the qualification process, and I can’t wait to see them on the same track as the rest of the Formula E grid.

“Accessibility and fan engagement are two of the key cornerstones of Formula E, and what better way to promote this than getting the sim racers to compete in the same colours as their Formula E counterparts – it will be fascinating to see who comes out on top.”